For Police, Obstacles in Pursuing Elusive Suspect and Figuring Out a Pattern

By MIREYA NAVARRO with DON VAN NATTA Jr.

Published: July 24, 1997

MIAMI BEACH, July 23—
On June 21, ''America's Most Wanted'' flashed Andrew Phillip Cunanan's picture on television for the fourth time in less than two months, but this time the show immediately brought calls that placed the suspected killer for the first time in South Florida. The first tip came from West Palm Beach, where a man said he had just spotted Mr. Cunanan at a gay bar there, Federal law-enforcement officials said.

Over the next three weeks until the killing of the fashion designer Gianni Versace here on July 15, the officials said, the authorities in South Florida received numerous reports of sightings of Mr. Cunanan. Last night, after storming a Miami Beach houseboat where a shot had been heard, they were trying to learn the identity of the dead man aboard, who had apparently committed suicide and who was, they said, similar in appearance to Mr. Cunanan.

If the body was that of Mr. Cunanan, he had managed to elude police one more time. A Federal law enforcement official said that undercover agents assigned to the search had been based in a condominium building across the street, on the 5200 block of Collins Avenue.

The story of how the 27-year-old Mr. Cunanan was able to move about brazenly for weeks, even giving his real name and hotel address to a local pawnshop, is one of a fast-learning fugitive and a law-enforcement effort that at times seemed slow.

But mostly, it illustrates how difficult it is to catch a suspect who varies his methods, has murky motives and employs a remarkable ability to blend in with other people.

The authorities say that eight days after receiving $190 in the pawn shop for a gold coin that belonged to a Chicago man Mr. Cunanan is suspected of killing, the fugitive killed again in South Beach section here, shooting Mr. Versace twice with the same .40-caliber handgun that was used to kill two of four other victims.

''We missed a perfect opportunity,'' said a Dade County prosecutor who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''We had his exact location and everyone has sort of come to grips with the fact that we let this guy slip through our fingers.''

In the search for Mr. Cunanan, law-enforcement officials have confronted both the best and worst conditions of an investigation, criminal justice experts said. As an advantage, they have Mr. Cunanan's name, pictures that show his many guises and substantial incriminating evidence at each crime scene.

Most serial killers have consistent methods and targets that make their actions more predictable. But in Mr. Cunanan's case, experts said, investigators have been frustrated by his changeability. The motivation for the first two killings in which he is accused appears to be personal -- settling a score with people he knew in Minnesota. In two others, the experts said, it may have been expediency and in Mr. Versace's murder, perhaps, the thrill of notoriety.

If Mr. Cunanan killed all five men, his methods also display no consistency. He has been accused of shooting three men, bludgeoning one and stabbing another. The killing of Mr. Versace seemed so calculated -- two bullets to the head at point-blank range as the victim moved through his morning routine -- that it was initially thought to be a contract killing. Yet Lee Miglin, the millionaire developer who was killed in Chicago in May, was apparently tortured in almost ritualistic fashion over several hours.

And because the crimes span four states, including New Jersey, investigators have not always been able to go to the usual sources for leads, like the suspect's associates or known haunts. Mr. Cunanan has also displayed his intelligence in, for example, the planning required to kill Mr. Versace.

''That takes more planning that the average criminal is capable of performing,'' said Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist in California who serves as consultant to the profiling and behavioral assessment unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy.

But investigators in South Florida also ran into trouble on their own. Two days after Mr. Versace was killed, the killing of a doctor believed to have been gay by a suspect who fit Mr. Cunanan's description temporarily diverted scores of law-enforcement agents, along with tracking dogs and helicopters. For almost a day, ''it was a distraction that we probably didn't need,'' said a Florida law-enforcement official.

F.B.I. officials said they had reached out to gay groups and distributed about 2,000 most-wanted fliers about Mr. Cunanan in South Florida in the two weeks before Mr. Versace was killed. But gay residents of South Beach said their clubs, publications and organizations were never singled out for heightened alert even after law-enforcement officials had good reason to believe Mr. Cunanan, who was known to frequent gay establishments, was in their midst.

For more than two months before the shooting of Mr. Versace, Mr. Cunanan, was able to move around Miami Beach, mostly at night, undetected, even when the authorities were a few steps behind him.